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raid question

Hi all,

Q on RAID.

I created RAID 6 on my server. Its operational but parity initialization is not yet complete. (30%)
I had 1 disk fail & the entire RAID failed!
I'm but confused here, is the 2 disk redudancy only after the parity initialization is complete?

I wasn't able to reproduce the same issue as above on another server, by recreating raid & failing a single disk before parity initialization completes.

I can be found either 40 miles west of Chicago, in Chicago, or in a galaxy far, far away.

Posts

13,383

Until a RAID array is fully initialized there is no protection. I hope you hadn't put live data on it yet! These devices need to be installed clean, initialized, and then burnt-in for a period of time (a couple of days at least) to shake out any teething problems. Also, a RAID does not mean you don't need to backup your data regularly! In fact, it is probably even more important that you do so since you have a larger amount of data to lose and the fact is that it is common for drives in an array to fail in groups, especially if they came from the same manufacturing batches. When that happens, RAID features won't help you much. I think I've seen people lose more data by depending upon RAIDs than normal storage arrays, simply because they forget these factors and neglect proper backup procedures.

Sometimes, real fast is almost as good as real time.
Just remember, Semper Gumbi - always be flexible!